Limiting Government and Understanding “Rights”

From Sylvia Bokor at American Thinker:

Individual rights have been bastardized. There is no such thing as “a right to a job,” “a right to health care,” “a right to a decent home,” et cetera. No one can transform the actions of those that create products and/or services into another’s purview.

Today, violations of individual rights are so pervasive that many Americans are ignorant of what individual rights actually are and of the extent to which their rights are daily violated.

Individual rights are not rights to the skills, knowledge, and/or products that others create. Individual rights are rights to actions.

The right to life is the freedom to take those actions to sustain one’s life. The right to property is the right to keep what one earns. The right to liberty is the freedom to move about freely, uncoerced, to visit and/or live and seek work where one chooses. The right to the pursuit of happiness is the freedom to take those actions that one believes will result in one’s enjoyment of life.

Inherent in the principle of individual rights is the proviso that no one may violate the rights of others. There can be no “right” to violate rights.

Videos

Quotes

“If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions.” —James Madison (1792)